Plain knitting as therapy

I know knitting can be a year-round pursuit, but I do find myself more inclined to snuggle on the couch with the needles during the colder months. I've got a couple of projects on the go, but a it's all fairly straight-forward knitting. At first I thought it was because I'm still recovering from the summer lace project (we won't mention that today as it's still not finished!) and that I should add something a little more complex to the works in progress, but then I realised that what I have on the go at the moment is just perfect.

Right now, all my other textile pursuits are full-on and deadline driven, they involve lots of hand-stitching and lots of things I've never even tried before. You'll get to see all of that soon, but in the meantime a little bit of plain knitting is just what I need to switch off and keep me sane – so here goes...

First up is a finish! It feels like forever since I've done a ta-da moment on here. This is a blanket I knitted for my sister, or more accurately my new little nephew. It's done in Koigu I bought in New York last year. I learnt a big lesson in keeping my Ravelry up-to-date with this one. Unfortunately the blue skein ran out about 5 rows short of the other colours, which was pretty frustrating. I contacted Purl Soho and they kindly offered to send me another, but I couldn't find the tag so I guessed the colourway. I didn't like what came back in the post and I've found the receipt and colourway since (doubly annoying, and note to self – you really need to keep Ravelry up to date!) so I just went with the shorter blue strip in the right colour. Let's face it, nobody else will probably notice except me (and now all of you!)

The next project is another summer-weight cardigan I'm knitting for my sister (different one). The pattern is in bamboo, but I'm doing it in a cotton blend. It took a lot of swatching to figure out which needle size I should be using, but I think it's going to be OK now. For some reason I keep twisting stitches on this one. Maybe I'm subconsciously sabotaging myself to break up the monotony of plain knitting?

And last but not least is this project. It's for me and it makes me very happy knitting in this colour! It's going to be a navy, cream and yellow winter cardigan/jacket. It's a Milla Mia pattern and you can find the details on my Ravelry page – I've managed to get that bit up to date.

Right now though, I need to get back to that stitching! Hope everyone has a great week.